Power line Audio/Video networks will likely gain wide acceptance and be used extensively in homes in near future. Certain of these networks using the HomePlug standard were designed to target video streaming. Audio streaming occupies only less than 10% of the bandwidth that video streaming uses. Therefore, little consideration has been given to handling audio applications in such video-oriented networks. There are, however, several significant things to consider when using a Power Line Communication (PLC) network for audio applications.
One issue is cost. Recently, high quality audio products have become quite cost-competitive. Consumers have accordingly become unwilling to pay premiums to listen to music, since it is generally unnecessary to do so when high quality can be achieved at very low costs. A networked audio product is likely to be no exception. Unfortunately, new power line network interfaces that are currently under design for video transmission applications are redundant and may be considered too expensive for audio applications.
Another problem is that of receipt of the same music by multiple target devices. It will be useful for a power line network to provide background music (BGM) or other music programs to multiple targets. However, there is currently no mechanism contemplated that is suitable for broadcasting audio to multiple targets.